Astrovelo

A tulip bud eclipsing the setting Sun.

Ashwini is into rhyming words these days. She calls herself shwinee-beenie. Her teachers are Sara-bara and Rachel-bachel. Her friends are holly-Molly,  Cameron-bameron etc. She calls V, Aai-bai, which sounds very nice and appropriate. In Marathi, ‘bai’ is added to a woman’s name as a sign of respect. During my recent trip to India, I met a few college-mates. I was talking with one Marathi-speaking friends and we were refering to our lady professors as ‘this-bai’ or ‘that-bai’. Other friends who now teach there, were upset at us for referring to our teachers as ‘bai’. Lately, Hindi movies and Hindi TV serials have bastardised the meaning of that word by using it exclusively in reference to a housemaid. It just annoys me to no end.

Almost same time, almost same location, almost same camera settings except focus.

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On my fourth trip to the capital of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s kingdom, I cheated. The technological advance let me take a shortcut on this pilgrimage. Instead of climbing the thousand+ steps over 2-3 hours, I sat in a cable car and was wisked to the top in less than 5 minutes. It was nice to be not tired upon arrival, but climbing up is fun, too.

A view from the cable car, of the steep cliffs that surround Raigad and provide natural protection from enemy.

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Dilapidated remains of living quarters of Shivaji Maharaj, and his ministers' homes.

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The location where the throne of Maratha kingdom stood and where Shivaji Maharaj was annointed as a king. The throne was made of gold and weighed about 1400 Kg. It was stolen by the British when they took Raigad in I think, 1818.



The Nagaarkhana is the entrance to the large courtyard where Shivaji Maharaj held court. This big courtyard is open now, but was completely covered with a roof in those days.

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One of the two entrances to the fort. This is the main entrance, which I missed entering through because of the cable car ride. It is heavily fortified and has huge wooden doors. The natural defense of steep unscalable walls is visible in this view, too. The fort finally fell to the long range canons of the British. They targeted the warehouse that stored gun powder on the fort and the whole place was burning for days.

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Shivaji Maharaj died on Raigad and was cremated here. This memorial was built on the cremation site.

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Takmak tok is the part of the fort that jutts out from the main mountain. From this point, there is a straight fall of about 1000 meters. This is the place where people who committed treason were executed by a simple push over the edge.



This place has some protective railings which have thoroughly rotten due to rainy season. I would not try to get any support from them.



Finally, me standing at the end of Takmak tok enjoying the view.

Reposting this as the date of the walk comes closer. Sincere thanks to those who already made a donation. So far, I have collected $150 from friends & family and $85 in matching donations from their employers.

If you were planning to donate to this cause but, still haven’t, please do so soon by visiting my webpage. I’ll match every dollar you donate and my employer will match my donation. So, every dollar of your donation will turn into 3.

Thanks for your support.

Premature birth is the leading cause of newborn death in the first month of life. It affects 1,305 babies a day in the United States. Those who survive may have lifelong health problems. And premature births are on the rise – up to 27% since 1981.

My daughter as well as I were born prematurely. Thankfully, both of us are doing well but, there are many who are not so fortunate.

I am asking you to support me in March of Dimes WalkAmerica, because premature birth can happen to any pregnant woman. In nearly half the cases, the causes are unknown. The March of Dimes is supporting research into the causes of premature birth. I’m joining the walk in Ann Arbor, MI on May 1st, and so can you!

Your support helps fund: -Research into stress and other factors that may trigger preterm labor. -Programs to educate pregnant women to recognize the warning signs of preterm labor. -Tools to help health care providers find better ways to detect women who may be at risk for preterm labor.

Please visit my webpage and sponsor me in the Walk that saves babies!

If you wish to participate in the walk visit Walk America website and find a walk in your area.

I felt so powerful today….

We decided to clear out some area in the woods. We don’t want to touch the big trees, but, need to remove some really thorny bushes and young trees to make the wooded area accessible to walks and such. Those thorny bushes are really nasty. They easily rip your clothes and can even take your eye out. I didn’t want to deal with them wih my hands. So, I went to The Home Depot, and bought the ultimate power tool… a chainsaw. It was my first experience with a chainsaw and I felt so powerful. Nothing could stand in my way. Even after getting scratched and bloodied by the thorns, I was chopping up bushes and small trees with much ease and without any care. I almost felt what pioneer Americans must have felt. Clearing wild woods for my own use.

Gathering all the cut pieces together was a much tougher job than cutting it all. Wish I could get someone to do that for me. It is going to take a lot of work to complete the clearing job. But, I am excited to get my hands on the chainsaw again tomorrow.

To continue with the community appreciation theme, Ashwini’s daycare baked cookies and distributed them to houses around their facility.

I feel very jealous of these people who live around there. Just imagine… you answer an unexpected knock on the door. As you open the door, you find a bunch of 2-year olds standing there, looking up at you, offering a nicely wrapped packet a cookies. What will be your reaction?

Last night was not too windy and clear. Although, I froze my fingers by the end of the 2 hour session, I was able to take some photos of the Moon and Saturn. Here they are…

The prominant crater towards the left is ‘Theophilus’ and the flat area to left of it, near the edge of the photo is the “Sea of Tranquility”. Apollo 11 landing site is somewhere in that flat region.

Two day old thin crescent of the Moon with some lingering sunlight.

A closeup shot of the same 2 day old Moon showing earthshine.

Some people are just insane and I feel like smacking some sense into them. They are not fit to be parents and should be neutered. Yesterday, there was a couple at the concert, who had brought their children along. The older one was 5-6 years old and the younger was not even an year old. The music was so loud and the drum beats were sending these vibrations through our bodies. How the hell did they decide that it was OK for a small child like that. It is not just bad physically for the developing ear, but, loud noise is probably bad for the mental health of the child too. And this was not just a few seconds of noise, they were there for 3 hours.

Now, if (s)he grows up with some hearing loss, what are these parents going to do? Of course, sue the concert organisers for creating dangerous environment for their child. Supid morons…

Just came back from the Bob Dylan Show as they called it. It was OK. Less than what I had expected. I wasn’t disappointed but, I wasn’t wowed either. I had a hard time recognising many of the songs. Some of them were new and the old ones were totally revamped rock and roll style. Here is tonight’s playset.

At Ashwini’s daycare, this week is ‘Community Appreciation Week’. Yesterday, a chain-gang of toddlers walked outside their daycare, picking up trash. Ashwini was picking up every leaf and rock and asking her teacher, “trash?”. So, her teacher finally taught them to classify everything… paper, plastic etc is ‘trash’; leaves, rocks, grass is ‘nature’. It was so funny. This morning they had put up some pictures from yesterday. Everyone looked so enthusiastic about collecting trash.

The things that they think of at the daycare….

BTW, today’s C&H cartoon reminded of Ashwini. She looks just like this when she cries these days..

Saturday was such a busy day. It started with Ashwini’s swimming class in the morning. Did our usual grocery run in the evening followed by a lot of yardwork. Ashwini was very helpful in picking up leaves and cleaning up our flower bed.

In the afternoon, we went for a plane ride. My boss is a pilot and he took us out and up for a spin. Flew over Ann Arbor and then did a flyby over our house.

University of Michigan football stadium and part of the campus.


A closeup of the Big House, the largest college football stadium in US. It seats 112,000 people.


The house in the middle here is our home.

Just bought tickets on ebay for Bruce Springsteen’s tour-opening show in Detroit on April, 25th. Yaay!!! It is so exciting. First time to see Bruce live. This show was officially sold out in 1 minute after the sale of tickets opened. I am sure every ticket was bought by a scalper.

Also, bought tickets for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in Detroit on July 20th.

We go to see Bob Dylan tomorrow night.

Oh yeah, and U2 in October.

This year is shaping up pretty well in terms of music concerts.

I am still listening to ‘The Fountainhead’. I found the descriptions of interactions between Howard Roark and Dominique Francone quite idiotic. Actully, as idiotic as the romance in most hindi movies.

Ashwini is 25 month old today. I am supposed to stop counting months after 2 years, but, I cannot. As it can be seen in the photo, she has picked up a bad habit from her ‘dada’: eating straight out of a box. This is how we eat our afternoon snack on weekends.

• This update is mostly about Ashwini's vastly increased vocabulary and the tiny little horns that are sprouting on her head (some readers will realise that this is a literal translation of Marathi term 'shinga futane').
• Ashwini talks a lot and a lot of different things. We are puzzled more than a few times everyday by what she says. She has to be involved in all conversations. V and I are not allowed to talk with just each other.
• She can sing nursery rhymes from start to end. Many of them, she knows just by the sounds and doesn't understand the words.
• She can recite whole books in the same manner as above.
• Don't know what she understands but, she comfortably uses abstract terms like 'something'. I asked her if she wanted to read a certain book and her reply was 'maybe later'.
• Ashwini asks for whatever food she wants by name. She usually remembers what she ate at the daycare. We check her answers with the pre-made menu we get from the daycare and she is right most of the times.
• She is officially bottle-free. Two weekends ago, we decided to keep away all her bottles, and she doesn't miss them. She is happy to use sippy cups and asks for a bottle very rarely, which we don't give.
• It is getting more and more difficult to distract her away from something that we don't want her to do.
• She is very good at the use of please and thank you. It is really really really hard to dismiss her 'pleeeeaaase', and I always end up letting her have her way.
• Thanks to her daycare, she can take her shoes off. She can also put on her coat as well as take it off and hang it on a hook.
• Sometimes she doesn't want to eat much and other times, it is the opposite. She still likes to eat all kinds of foods including different veggies and fruits. She goes through phases of liking and disliking certain kinds of vegetables. But, all fruits are welcome all the time.
• She is getting good at all different kinds of shape and color sorting puzzles, identifying colors, alphabets and numbers.
• These days, Ashwini is all about testing limits, especially the limit of our patience.

A few more of her photos that I experimented with to add ‘glow’….

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